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tv   FOX News Watch  FOX News  July 23, 2011 8:30pm-9:00pm PDT

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earthquake. >> well said. >> and the tsunami. >> a fine american. >> and hats off to japan. that's it for this week's edition of the journal, editorial re i'm stuart varney. paul is back next week. >> jon: on fox news watch. >> this is the most humble day of my life. >> jon: news corporation's chief rupert murdoch makes a heart felt statement during the u.k. phone hacking scandal. his appearance with his son james was big news there and big news here. how else did the media react and what else have we learned about the scandal. >> republicans have laid out a responsible and detailed path forward, and the house has passed it. >> jon: the house passes a plan to fix the debt crisis, but the media condemn the effort. >> do we really have time for a plan that is really just show? >> and the great debt debate goes on with more distortion from the liberal press?
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>> there he's saying brinksmanship, trickery around the time of a deadline just to get your way is sort of economic terrorism. >> has the negative media coverage hurt the effort. >> g.o.p. presidential candidate michele bachmann goes on the defensive after a negative story about her health and ability. did that story fail the journalistic ethics test? >> having fired the imagination of a generation, a ship like no other, its place in history secured, the space shuttle pulls into port for the last time. >> and an end to an era, with no clear future for a u.s. role in space, if the media lost interest? and captain america is back. and the media raise questions about his politics. on the panel this week, talk radio news host ellen ratner, national review editor rich lawrie. jim pinkerton, fellow new
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american foundation and new york post columnist kirsten powers. i'm jon scott and fox news watch is on right now. ♪ >> a lot of people have different agendas, i think, in trying to build this hysteria. all our competitors in this country formally announced the consortium to try and stop us and caught us with-- >> the news corporation chairman rupert murdoch and james murdoch informing in front of a parliamentary committee investigating the news the world phone hacking scandal in the usa. rebecca brooks, former executive chief at news international also answered questions from the same committee and she was arrested sunday in relation to the
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phone hacking and bribery aleses. miss brooks was released without being charged. both sections receiving major media coverage in the u.k. and here in the states and we should note that news corporation is the parent company of fox news channel. rich, let me start with you. we heard the sound bite from rupert murdoch during the testimony, saying, hey, this is getting the attention it's getting because of our competitors who would love to see us fail. does he have a point. >> yeah, i think it plays into it. to me reminds me of the valerie plame flap, disproportionate primarily driven by politics. especially the coverage in the united states. the new york times the other day had two front page side by side lengthy stories about something going on in britain. to do that otherwise, you would need the queen to abdicate and the plague to hit london. clearly there's a political agenda at work here. >> the testimony from the murdoches and the testimony from rebecca brooks, coverage as we said, both, here in the
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states and of course in the u.k. all the cable news networks on fox, on it in its entirety, no commercial breaks. do you think that the coverage was warranted, was it fair? >> was the coverage important in that it's the most important thing going on in the world, it's not. rupert murdoch and a lot of people have a lot of interest in it, yes. people want to see is this the thing that takes rupert murdoch down and you see this idea that somehow they're going to prove something that happened in this one isolated incident is actually happening everywhere else. that's what the coverage is really about, i think, is trying to blow it into something more than what it actually was. >> jon: jim, a lot of people out there would have loved to have seen some sort of a gotcha moment. did that happen? on haw was it covered. >> gotcha moment and something on television, the guy with
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the phone. >> the wendy punch. >> punch out the pie. >> great coverage. >> as noel shepherd of news busters pointed out. some nitwit at msnbc it shus have been a conspiracy and the murdoches must have been behind the pie thrower, and sympathy for them. the story is divided into four different threads, if you will. one is the murdoches and the news corporation, wendy side bar. and second the rest of the british media culture appears to have the same issue at hand and the third is now the penetration into british politics, head of scotland yard resigning and david cameron 163 questions in one session and the most speculative, i think, what kirsten was saying, most american audience, can the obama justice department or somebody else find some way into damaging or subpoenaing the american part of this
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operation, which has no linkage i know of to anything happening in britain. >> that's pretty farfetched, number four. i can tell you i was impressed. the guardian actually did a story how it was, i won't say the word on tv, but cluster-- and interesting, also, talked about the fact that bbc and cnn were trying to make as much hay as they can, because they're afraid of the competition and they really wanted to slam down the competition. i thought that was very interesting. the new york times came up with something interesting, this is the best kind of story we don't know how it's going to end. that gets to the personal issue, this wouldn't be such a big story if it wasn't so much for a lot of the-- its larger than life characters. and whether it's a pie thrower or rupert murdoch's wife wendy, or rupert murdoch, these are larger than life characters and that really made the story. >> and piers morgan now on cnn
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and used to work for rupert murdoch and news of the world and editing his get it right. he was watching and tweeting after the member of parliament addressed him: . >> did piers morgan sort of nail is there? >> he has a stake in this fight. he's accused of being involved in or sanctioning similar practices because he wrote in his book how you do the phone hacking, if he wasn't doing it himself or people under him, a common practice on fleet street. a shot at gambling in the casino, this is part of this very aggressive down and dirty newspaper culture in britain where everyone knew it hospital operated that way and now there's a chance to use that culture against rupert murdoch. >> if you look at abc's news
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conference, they didn't explain the situation. it was like this paragraph on their website, and it didn't really explain what the situation was, that he'd really written a book and sort of mentioned it and it didn't explain to the american people what was going on. >> one of the things that's disturbing is the notion that okay, government should police crimes, they have you had not police the media and media culture and you're seeing the ideas bubbling up in britain and even here, op-eds written, tabloids don't deserve first amendment protection, that's insane and dangerous. >> and going nowhere. >> and let me get you to weigh in on this. it's becoming apparent that this practice of phone hacking was not specific to news of the world or news corporation, but in fact, it's a tactic used by all over the united kingdom. >> there's been some reporting on that, but not on other media properties doing the same thing here. >> i think what they need to do, take some editors and put
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them under oath. have you done this? it's hard for the media to cover something that's speculative. and everybody does it, but they need hard facts of other papers doing it. >> jim. >> i would add, look, criminal is criminal. if you break the law, the fact that you're a reporter shouldn't he think cha the fact you broke the law and ought to go to jail. what's interesting on the new york times, a fellow, historian for the university of southern california said, look, the tabloids play this important role and pierce the facade of all the spin and pageantry that went on and decided specifically-- >> middleton and william. >> the princess. and they play, a quote, a fundamental role in democratic culture closed quote. >> they said other than that everything we would get would be highly, really highly controlled and from media and without the tabloids, what would we be? >> take a quick break. first to keep up on media stories during the week. go to our website and check out the watch list section. coming up next, media coverage
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of the deficit issue, and the debt debate helped or hurt the effort? >> the great debt debate continues in washington. and in the press. as the mainstream media dismisses the house backed plan and blamed republicans for wasting time on getting a real deal done. >> my ability to function effectively will not affect my ability to serve as commander-in-chief. >> michele bachmann goes on the defensive following comments by an unnamed source. saying a medical condition incapacitates her for days. how did the media react to this? find out next on news watch. now?! [ female announcer ] crest whitestrips two hour express. in just two hours you can have a noticeably whiter smile that lasts for months. hi. hi. [ female announcer ] two hour whitestrips from crest. life opens up when you do.
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♪ hah
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>> you've got a media that's become much more splintered. those of you who are of a democratic persuasion only reading the new york times and watching msnbc and if you're on the right, then you're only reading the wall street journal editorial page and watching fox news. and you know, if that's where you get your information, just from one side, if you never even have to hear another argument, then over time, you start getting more dug into your positions.
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>> jon: president obama at a town hall meeting on friday, talking about the debt ceiling debate. first saying that republicans are afraid to compromise because of fears they'll be voted out of office and then talking about how a split media forces people into their positions on this debate. which i'm sorry he didn't mention the national-- almost the president say the americans can't be trusted to be their own news consumers, right? >> exactly. he gets on this high horse occasionally, lecturing about the media culture and the idea that deep philosophical differences on dinner sides of the dispute and would be worked out between abc and the three big networks, it's ridiculous. >> jon: kirsten the vast majority of the coverage i've seen the nitty-gritty and what proposals are there, only the juicy stuff. is the media guilty on focusing on the drama and not the details?
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>> well, i mean, that is kind of what they do. i think that, i think that the political drama is interesting to people, but i feel like the facts have been out there. you can find out what's been put on the table and discussed. i don't feel that that hasn't been really been covered. i think that where you've seen the so-called divide has really been what i think is accurate where you have maybe more lib cal people saying, look, we're headed for a cliff here and something needs to be done and republicans are behaving in an irresponsible way. >> no one is talking about what he and tea party people are talking about on one side, in terms of the gang of seven deal is going to add to the debt. then on the left, i know that there was a small thing in politico, i know media research center, i believe, referred to this about the religious leaders meetings at the water.
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and there was a small paragraph, but nobody really talked about the essence of that meeting and religious leaders were upset with obama because of not doing enough for poor people. >> jon: jim, media falling all over each other talking about the gang of six, seven, eight or whatever, this by part sap thing and then the republicans in the house pass cut, cap and balance and it's being referred to in the media as just merely being symbolic. they dismissed it out of hand. >> or as cnn called it a piece of legislation that passed a majority of the house, they called it a hard right piece of legislation, on the little e-ma e-male-- e-mail bulletin. and maybe americans are more conservative than cnn realizes. look, what is interesting, rich touched on this, obama on his high horse, desperately trying to triangulate and "the washington post" has been pretty much, inside politics things, saying, look, everybody this the clinton-- everybody in the obama white house has alumni association to the clinton white house and
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they remember what bill clinton did so effectively. what they're not saying, is that unemployment is double what it was 15 years and clinton did the exact same thing. the basic goodwill of the president is dependent on the state of the economy and that's not good. all of this inside baseball stuff may be for naught. most think that obama is going to win the battle and win the war. >> if you see something that you think is evidence of media bias, you can e-mail us, the e-mail is newswatch@foxnews.com. and america's lead in space exploration. >> space shuttle atlantis return home. have the media given up the fight? a comic book heroes politics gets media scrutiny. is captain america, a fair and
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balanced crime fighter? ♪ [ malennouncer ] if it's tr that sharks can sense even a drop of blood from a quarter of a mile away, which razor would you use? ♪ ♪
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>> i prescribe medication that i take on occasion whenever symptoms arise and they keep my migraines under control, but i'd like to be abundantly clear, my ability to function effectively will not effective-- will not affect my ability to serve as commander-in-chief. >> michele bachmann trying to put the issue to rest this week after an unnamed source told the daily caller that the congresswoman suffers from chronic and debilitating migraine headaches and bachmann released a note from her doctor in congress migraines occur infrequently and have known trigger factors you are aware and know how to
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avoid when you have a migraine and you're able to control it with the as-needed medications, that's the note from the doctor. okay, guys, let's talk about this. first of all, anonymous sources, kirsten, why is it appropriate for any news outlet to grant am nimty to a source. >> i think if you know it's a high ranking person that's trustworthy and think they're telling you something really important you should go out there, that you consider it. but it really should not be your entire story should not be based on, disgruntled ex-sources. >> two sources is what we were told. >> what the story was, they were speaking to disgruntled ex-staffers, the way it was written, as if she was some unstable drug addict or something, i mean, it was-- >> and very, very interesting as she begins to climb in the polls, all of a sudden, i guess it shouldn't be that big of a surprise, somebody is trying to shoot her down. >> i disagree with kirsten here, i think it's legitimate story, you have the unnamed
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sources what they're telling you is basically confirmed on the record by bachmann's spokesperson when they went to her. >> the sources said she was incapacitat incapacitated. >> that they have exaggerated, but the basic fact she has migraines and problems, and is a medical issue, anything with the president of the united states is a legitimate issue. if you think things are exaggerated or tweaked too much, but it's a legitimate story. >> the point is it's know the a problem. it was so exaggerated and the note from the doctor that makes it clear this isn't a problem at all. >> real politics, came out with a story and her reply was pitch perfect. she came at it and a lot of the news media didn't pick it up, but she came at it directly and i think that they stumped it up correctly. >> and an angle for this-- >> i should tell you first that my wife works for the michele bachmann campaign so i will simply note that female
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reporters seem to have picked up on that and observers, sherry. elizabeth hasselbeck on the view, all of them said women are three teams more likely to get migraines than men and she's getting a different standard than say, joe biden and his brain aneurysm or dick cheney and his multiple heart attacks and john kennedy and who knows what was wrong with him. so there's a different-- . hold on, are you guys saying that this story should not have appeared? it's not legitimate whatsoever to bring up-- we don't know ultimately what are the triggering mechanisms and should this never have been reported. >> and even your national review, david french's article said she was getting the sarah palin treatment and i agree with that, and-- >> you guys do not think it was at all legitimate should not have appeared. >> a way to bring it-- >> i don't think these people obviously were exaggerating if they said versus what the
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doctors said. what they said was actually not-- >> if the story was accurate, yes, if you with a nt to write a story saying that michele bachmann gets migraines under the care of a doctor and medicated and everything is fine, and never cause problems if you with a nt to write that story. >> the final touchdown of the space shuttle atlantis kennedy space center, ending the 30 year shuttle program and ending 50 years of america putting americans in space, leaving u.s. astronauts to hitchhike aboard russian rockets and get to the space station. rich, americans believe, according to fox news poll, that it was president kennedy that had a much more on space exploration than president obama. is the media not pressing more on what's happened to the space program. >> i don't want to be a wet blanket, but i think the space program lost its romance a long time ago and a bust that went back and forth to the space station, another kind of white elephant.
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no, i don't think it captures the public imagination. >> it may have lost romance, but hasn't lost his interest, military defense. military defense. >> and does captain challenge that with olay regenerist night elixir. its gentle glycolic formula resurfaces at night for the smooth skin of a light chemical peel. sleep ght. regenerist, from olay. vietnam, 1967. i got mine in iraq, 2003. u.s.a.a. autonsurance is often handed down from generation to generation, because it offers a superior level of protection and because u.s.a.a.'s commitment to serve the military, veterans, and their families is without equal. ben your lega. get an auto insurance quote. u.s.a.a. we know what it means to serve.
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>> rick: theme from the new
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movie captain america, first avenger that opened in theaters yesterday. first appeared in 1940 a time when patriotism was strong and when we were entering world war ii. captain america and the battle against the hitler and the nazi says a hit. now, they are back for a whole new situation and the political climate is different and some have raised questions about his allegiance. americans have donned the cap costume for all sorts of events appearing at hug. joining an anti-tax rally with members of the tea party and bob calhoun attempted to drag night the political discourse acting whose captain america is it anyway? would he be a new democratic or rallying with the tea party to lower taxes on billionaires and

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